This piece originally appeared in The Oregonian on August 18, 2025.
June’s deadly attack on Minnesota House of Representatives Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and others was a reminder of the danger of political violence.
Hours before the attack, Oregon lawmakers passed Senate Bill 224, preventing the public disclosure of the home addresses of individuals associated with political campaign committees – addresses that the state collects in its electronic filing system.
Obtaining contributors’ addresses has become alarmingly effortless. Accessing federal donor information once required visiting the Federal Election Commission office and searching paper files. Today, armed only with an individual’s name, it takes fewer than a half dozen clicks on the commission’s website to get that donor’s home address, Democratic FEC Commissioner Dara Lindenbaum said. Lindenbaum and the bipartisan FEC have unanimously recommended that Congress protect federal donor street names and house numbers from public disclosure, while keeping their names, cities and contribution amounts available.
Currently, Oregon mandates public reporting for annual contributions exceeding an aggregate of just $100 – far too low a threshold. No legitimate purpose exists for publicly reporting addresses of small-dollar contributors, which stay online indefinitely. Disclosure should target only substantial donors – $2,500 or more in statewide races. For other races, the current $100 threshold should be adjusted for the inflation that has occurred since it was adopted several decades ago.
Now that Oregon has shielded campaign participants, it should protect donors. The time for comprehensive donor privacy reform is now.
